John C. Maxwell's Blog, page 26

What Successful People Know About Winning

My friend Robert Schuller once asked, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?” That’s a great question, an inspiring question. When most people hear it, they start dreaming. They are motivated to reach for their goals and to risk more.I have a question that I think is just as important: What do you learn when you fail?While people are usually ready to talk about their dreams, they are less prepared to answer a question about their shortcomings. Most people don’t like to t...

Don’t forget Mother’s Day!

Here in the United States, this coming Sunday, May 10, is Mother’s Day. I was blessed with an extraordinary mother who loved me unconditionally. To honor her and mothers everywhere, here are some inspiring quotes on motherhood and parenthood.A mother's arms are made of tenderness, and children sleep soundly in them. -Victor HugoA mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. –Dorothy Canfield FisherA mother’s love! O holy, boundless thing! Fountain whose waters...

Cultivating Creativity in Times of Crisis

Like everyone I know, I was horrified to learn of the tragic devastation that occurred in Nepal and the surrounding region when an earthquake struck. I lived in California for many years, where earthquakes were a fact of life. But I never experienced anything like the quake that hit that region last week. The destruction and loss of life are heart-breaking.I won’t attempt to give advice to the people affected by the tragedy. What they most need from us is prayer and relief efforts. But one th...

How Do You Become a Successful Failure?

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” - Thomas A. EdisonNobody likes to fail. But if we’re honest, we understand that failure is a part of life. There is no success without some amount of failure. Great inventors like Thomas Edison experience a lot of failures on the way to a successful invention. Even the best baseball players strike out much more often than they hit a home run.Anyone pursuing a goal of value will make mistakes and wrong decisions. So the key is t...

Be a Belief Magnet

Have you ever really thought about the way a magnet works? To someone who doesn’t understand the science, a magnet’s power to attract things to it appears almost magical. Likewise, have you ever met a person who seems to attract people the way a magnet attracts metal? They believe in others, and they attract people who just magically begin to believe in themselves. But I’m here today to tell you that there’s no magic – just a desire to help others and a method of transferring belief.When I sp...

Leadership Lessons from Ruth

Last week, I shared an excerpt from my newest book, Wisdom from Women in the Bible. I’m so excited about this book, because it represents my heart for the Biblical principles of leadership. The excerpt was from the story of Ruth, a courageous and caring woman who made decisions that changed her life and the lives of others.You can read last week’s excerpt here. Now, I want to continue with the rest of the lessons we can learn from Ruth. This time, we’re focused on leadership:We hesitate a mom...

Wisdom from Women in the Bible

This week I’m excited about the release of my latest book, Wisdom from Women in the Bible. Like my two other Giants of the Bible books, it’s written in a narrative form, but it’s still filled with the things that I’ve learned from each featured Biblical character. This time, I focused on female leaders in the Bible, and I got to imagine what it would be like to meet these inspiring women. Here’s just a taste of what you’ll find in Wisdom from Women in the Bible:RUTH: Follow Your Heart to Find...

“You Are Here”

“If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?” Have you ever been asked that question? Most of us have. And what’s interesting is that I’ve never met a person who replied, “Nothing. I’m perfect just the way I am.”For most of us, it’s not a question of if we want to change, but how. We want a better tomorrow. We have desires, dreams, and hopes. Maybe we have a habit we want to break. Or a goal we want to reach. Or a skill we want to develop.We know instinctively that if we w...

Walking with Giants

In 2010 I got the opportunity to speak at Joyce Meyer’s Love Life Women’s Conference. Joyce and I are good friends, and I’ve often appeared on her television show. On this day I chose to talk about how to live a fulfilling life, and about the importance of attitude. When I got up to speak, I told the audience that for ten years I had spoken to men at Promise Keepers events, but that I was glad that God had finally given me a greater audience to speak to. The whole place went nuts, and we had...

Good Words on Communication

I love collecting good quotes. I've been doing so for over 40 years. One subject where I have literally dozens of wonderful quotes is communication. It's one of my passions, so I pay close attention to what great communicators have to say on the subject. Here are just a few of my favorite quotes on communication. I hope they inspire and encourage you if you're trying to develop in that area.“The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”~Joseph Priestley“Speak clearl...